'Coal demand to be flat till '22; India coal-fired power output to rise 4%'

While India will be increasingly important to global coal markets, China will remain the key driver

The global demand for coal would remain nearly flat between 2017 and 2022, resulting in a decade of stagnation for coal consumption, according to the International Energy Agency's annual coal market report.

Global coal consumption fell 1.9 per cent to 5,357 million tonnes of coal equivalent (Mtce) last year, the second year of decline, because of lower gas prices, a surge in renewables, and improvements in energy efficiency, according to Coal 2017.

Coal demand dropped in China, the United States, and the European Union in 2016, but increased in India and across many parts of Southeast Asia, and shows no